30 research outputs found
On the threshold of adult life: Dis-course and life course of mental retardation in American culture
No full text"""On the Threshold of Adult Life"" is a study of the transition to adult life of persons with mild mental retardation in American culture. The analysis combines a discourse and life course approach based on (a) ethnographic work with twelve individuals, parents and school or agency personnel, (b) historical research of mental retardation, and (c) life transition. Through interdisciplinary work, the study adds to a dynamic anthropological approach to life transitions by taking into account the impact of history and specialized population on the nature of a recognized life transition. An understanding of the phenomenon of life transition suggests a revision of current policy and practice. The development of transition mediation is proposed and can not be limited to the Individual Education Plan (IEP) process. The use of ethnographic and historical methods and the analysis of discourse and life course issues broadens the intellectual basis for future scholarly work on the life transitions of persons with disabilities."Chapter 1 reviews policy development on transition and outlines an epistemological position of mental retardation as social construction. An anthropological approach to culture and disability studies is in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 analyses dis-course as historical impact of life transitions of a specific population. Ethnographic life histories of four selected persons with mental retardation in Chapter 4 are the basis for an understanding of the phenomenon of life transition as process. Life transition is defined as a significant flow of events that precipitate personal mediation and is marked by physical changes and social realignment. Chapter 5 situates parents, schools, agencies, and individuals with disabilities between discourse and life course. Subsequent chapters are based on a modified life course analysis that include individual (Chapter 6), social (Chapter 7), and cultural (Chapter 8) dimensions. In the conclusion, the threshold of adult life is presented as the outcome of historical development of stigma, the socialization and negotiation with the culture of mental retardation. Theoretically, the dynamic of life transitions is emphasized in terms of historical, socio-economic, and cultural-competence-impact that individuals and systems face in negotiating a life transition.Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T12:42:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
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Karl G. Heider (2006). Ethnographic Film (revised edition). Austin: Texas University Press
No full textstatus: Publishe
At the interstices of classification: Notes on the category of disability in sub-Saharan Africa
No full textPeople in all cultures of the world classify other people most readily in easily identifiable categories. Examples of such categories are race, gender, economic, and physical difference. These categories make the world intelligible because they assign roles and functions attached to the individuals that fill the category. Racial, gender, and other categories that reflect difference may change over time as to the meaning and assigned roles and functions, but the very fact of them being a criterion for classification remains rather unchallenged. Yet the very fact of classification may question whether individuals with disabilities belong to the most essential of all categories, the human category. With classification, a statement of exclusion or inclusion in the human category is imminent.status: Publishe
'We only got Coca-Cola': Disability and the paradox of (dis)empowerment in Southeast Nigeria
No full textBACKGROUND: Empowerment is the generic name for support services for persons with disability in Nigeria. In it, the elites of the society play leading roles. Special events such as anniversaries, Christmas seasons, wealthy people's birthdays, investiture of new titles and campaigns before general elections often provide occasions for empowerment programmes. OBJECTIVES: This article explores discourses of empowerment of persons with disability in Southeast Nigeria. We concentrate on the relation between local elites and the disability community and how it impacts our understanding of empowerment. Conceptualising empowerment as worldmaking, and disability as something that is ambiguous, we challenge the assumption that the aim of empowerment of disabled people is to improve their (disabled people's) quality of life. METHOD: This article relies on research data (collected between January 2014 and January 2017) comprising 72 interviews and participant observations from 27 persons with disability, and 13 social workers and senior government officials. RESULTS: We conclude that discourses of empowerment of disabled people frame disability as loss and tend to conceal the personal stories and survival operations of disabled people. CONCLUSION: Empowerment discourses ironically provide the platform for local power elites to 'ride' to fame on the backs of disabled to extend their influence in society. In the current neoliberal environment of unequal access to opportunities, disabled people must 'play along' as a survival strategy. Our qualitative data provide opportunities to reflect on the tensions between the 'local and the global', thus indicating how disability issues intersect with other wider questions.sponsorship: The authors gratefully acknowledge the support and generosity of the Faculty of Social Sciences at KU Leuven and the anonymous reviewers of this article for their useful comments and feedback. (Faculty of Social Sciences at KU Leuven)status: Publishe
